Commander's Rounds

Entry 75: Purity of Purpose

The commander closed up his notebook. "Well, I guess that's all I'm going to be getting out of you today, right?"

Purifier put on her big smile. "Heh. Well, thanks for playing, contestant number one! Looks like you once again don't go home with the grand prize, but you can try all you want. No guarantees, of course."

He shook his head. "I'm not asking for any, you know. Still, though, you seem pretty upbeat even though you've been stuck here for a while."

Purifier giggled. "Hey now, between the two of us, you're the one who seems like you're in a hurry. Wouldn't exactly call these accommodations four-star, though."

The commander shrugged. "You don't seem to be causing much trouble."

Purifier huffed. "Well, it's because that Chapayev lady looks like she wants me to start something, so she can do whatever's going on in her head. It might or might not be cruel, but it sure as shit is gonna be unusual."

"All right." The commander stood up. "I'm just going to leave you for now, and come back when I have more questions."

"And we'll just see if I have answers. Can't promise anything!"

The commander left her to her own devices.

And that night, Purifier would put her devices to work.

Even though Purifier had been stripped of all of her weapons and other combat equipment as well as her connection to the network, she was not without her resources, they just weren't immediately recognizable as tools to begin with. Purifier walked up to the window of her cell. It was one of those windows that was reinforced with wire, but that didn't really matter, considering what Purifier had on hand to deal with it. She plucked out one of her hairs, and one of the ends stiffened and sharpened, reconfiguring itself into a nanoblade. Useless for battle, but for what she needed it for, it was perfect.

She began cutting around one of the panes of the window. She had been carefully doing this little by little, making a cut so thin that it could only really be seen by a really nice microscope, just a little bit at a time so there would be a way out once there was an opportunity, with no one being the wiser. The idea was that as soon as there was an opportunity, she could finish the job, pop the pane out, and find some way off of the island while everyone else was busy.

Even though she was proud of her very delicate handiwork, she didn't quite expect for her opportunity to show up when it did. Just as she was finishing the last touches, the base alarms went off, and a general announcement went out over the loudspeakers. "All Kansen available for combat, scramble! Sudden Siren incursion detected at bearing 280.5. This is not a drill! All combat-available Kansen, scramble!"

Purifier smiled. They would certainly be a distraction, that's for sure. Purifier waited for a moment, and then finished her job on the glass, taking some time with it so that there would be the least number of those ships around when she made her break for it. She very neatly eased the pane out and placed it on her bed, and was ready to go.

Purifier managed to squeeze through the gap she made by cutting out the window. It wasn't the biggest gap, but then, she wasn't the biggest girl. Purifier could only imagine the comedy hour that would come from someone like Harvester trying to squeeze through there. The fact that her and more primitive electronics weren't on speaking terms went that the cameras were none the wiser when she landed on the outside lawn, and started making her way out, when.

"Ah... Puri?" Purifier was caught short, and sloooowly turned around to see Anchorage standing there, wearing a nightcap and rubbing one of her eyes. She had been woken up by the noise, and wandered out to see what was happening. "Oh... It is Puri..."